science

Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility

Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility rather than just read about it. In short: The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility is a voluntary pledge made by students graduating from colleges or universities, stating their commitment to social and environment responsibility in their future careers. The pledge was first offered in 1987 at colleges and universities in the United States, and has since spread to some institutions in other countries.

Key takeaways

Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility is a voluntary pledge made by students graduating from colleges or universities, stating their commitment to social and environment responsibility in their future careers. The pledge was first offered in 1987 at colleges and universities in the United States, and has since spread to some institutions in other countries.

Wording and meaning The Pledge states: I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work. The purpose of the Pledge is to encourage graduating students to be aware of the social and environmental impact of their employment as they enter the workforce or continue their education, though it is left to students to define for themselves what "socially and environmentally responsible" means. Students who voluntarily sign the pledge seek out employment that reflects their values, sometimes turning down jobs with which they do not feel comfortable. Others find employment and then work to make changes in their workplaces. Some examples include promoting recycling at their workplace, removing discriminatory language from training materials, working for gender equality in athletics, and helping to convince employers to reject contracts that would clearly have negative impacts on society or the environment.

History The pledge was first established at Humboldt State University, California, in 1987. It originated at a time when social responsibility became a widely discussed theme in the wake of 1978 reconstitution of Physicians for Social Responsibility to involve doctors in policy discussions about nuclear power, the 1981 founding of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and the socially responsible investing movement which grew out of the anti-apartheid divestment movement. By 1988, students at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, and MIT organized graduation pledges for their commencement ceremonies. Manchester University in Indiana hosted the effort from 1996 to 2007, at which time Bentley University near Boston became the host. The project takes shape in different ways depending on the institution. At some colleges, for example, students sign wallet-sized cards with the pledge written on them that they can keep as a reminder of the commitment they've made. Some institutions put the pledge into the formal program for their commencement ceremonies. At other institutions, pledge signers wear green ribbons or green tassels at commencement to signify their commitment (some schools use a different color of ribbon). At Bentley University the pledge is a "capstone" of its four-year Civic Leadership Program, and at Humboldt State University, the student government funds a student pledge coordinator internship.

Impact The pledge serves to promote social and environmental responsibility on three different levels: Students and alumni who are making choices about employment; schools including values and citizenship in their curriculum as opposed to just knowledge and skills; and the workplaces and wider society being concerned about issues beyond just the bottom line. The Graduation Pledge Alliance maintains a web site for campus organizers and those who have signed the Pledge.

Extent Over 100 universities and colleges as well as some high schools use the pledge to some extent. There are several different types of schools involved, including:

Liberal arts colleges such as Manchester University, Juniata College, Muhlenberg College and Hartwick College. State universities such as the University of Colorado, Boulder and the University of Florida. Private research universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Private graduate schools such as Antioch University New England. Faith schools such as Goshen College and Bethel College. Community Colleges such as Estrella Mountain Community College, Mesa Community College and Broward College. Professional schools such as the Fashion Institute of Technology. Schools outside the U.S. such as Trent University and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan.

Further reading The Graduation Pledge of Social & Environmental Responsibility: An Effective Tool for Education and Action on Human Rights, by Matt Nicodemus.

References

External links The Graduation Pledge Alliance website Archived 2012-01-01 at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility

In research: Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Environmental education, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility in simple terms?

Why does Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility.